Summary
Soil was amended with a variety of carbon sources, including four soluble compounds (glucose, sucrose, glycerol and mannitol) and two plant residues (straw and alfalfa).. Potential denitrification rates, measured both as N2O accumulation and NO3 − disappearance, were compared, and the predicted values of available C, measured as CO2 production and water-extractable C, were assessed.
The two measures of denitrification agreed well although N2O accumulation was, found to be most sensitive. Soil treated with the four soluble C compounds resulted in the same rate of denitrification although glycerol was not as rapidly oxidized. Alfalfa-amended soil produced a significantly higher rate of denitrification than the same amount of added straw. CO2 evolution was found to be a good predictor of denitrification over the first 2 days of sampling, but neither measure of available substrate C correlated well with denitrification rate beyond 4 days, when NO3 − was depleted in most treatments. The data with alfalfa-amended soil suggested that denitrifiers used water-extractable C. materials produced by other organisms under anaerobic conditions.
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de Catanzaro, J.B., Beauchamp, E.G. The effect of some carbon substrates on denitrification rates and carbon utilization in soil. Biol Fert Soils 1, 183–187 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00257635
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00257635